IIT entrance eligibility cut-off placed at 78.2%

IIT aspirants from CBSE Class XII have to score at least 78.2% to be in the Top 20 percentile of candidates for entrance exam eligibility. They must have also qualified in JEE (Main) exam to be able to appear for JEE (Advanced), to be held on June 2. The CBSE announced the cut-off score on Monday.

With the two-tier exam process, students who have qualified in JEE (Main) will be eligible to appear for JEE (Advanced) provided they fall in the Top 20 percentile in their respective boards. While the cut-off for the general category of students is 391, that for students in the OBC category is 389, and 350 and 338 for SC and ST categories, respectively.

Board chairman Vineet Joshi said the Top 20 percentile comprises 20% candidates who have passed the CBSE Class XII exam or around 7.3 lakh students.

For the first time in several years, Class XII scores will be given 40% weightage during admission. Around 26,500 students from last year's Class XII batch, therefore, appeared for their boards again to better their score; 1,763 appeared from Chennai region.

An academician said only those students who took a drop for one year after not qualifying in the IIT entrance exam opted for a score-improvement exam.